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LIBRARY
OF
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
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4
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Books by the Same Author
Scientific.
"The Cretaceous Flora, Part I." Illustrated.
Published by the Trustees of the British
Museum. las. net.
*• The CreUceous Flora, Part II." Illustrated.
Published by the Trustees of the British
Museum, ^i is. net.
*< Ancient Plants." Illustrated. Published by
Blackie. 4s. 6d. net.
"The Study of Plant Life," 2nd edidon.
Illustrated. Published by Blackie. 3s. 6d.
net.
••Married Love," 6th Edition, Publbhcd by
Fifield. 6s. net.
Travel.
••A Journal from Japan." Published by
Blackie. 7s. 6d. net.
Literary.
••Man, Other Poems, and a Prefecc."
lished by Heinemann. 38. 6d. net.
" Conquest," a Three-Act Play. Published by
French, is. net.
•• Gold in the Wood " and •• The Race." Two
Plays. Published by Fifield. 2s. net.
With Prof. J. Sakurai, ••Plays of Old Japan,
The No." Published by Heinemann. (s.
net.
The authof^s vivid and imaginative sym-
pathy has really enabled her in some degree to
communicate the incommunicable,
ATHBNiCUM.
IV.
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WISE PARENTHOOD
A SEQUEL TO " MARRIED LOVE "
A Book for Married People
BY
MARIE CARMICHAEL STOPES
Doctor of Science y London; Doctor of Philosophy^ Munich;
Fellow of University College^ London ; Fellow of the Royal
Society of Literature , and the Linnean Society^ London
With Introduction by
ARNOLD BENNETT
FOURTH EDITION
London: A. C. Fifield
13, Clifford's Inn, E.G. 4
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Dedicated to all who wish to see our
race grow in strength and beauty
First published November i8/^ 1918
Second Edition January ist, 1919
Third Edition March 20th, 1919
Fourth Edition April 22nd^ 1919
Copyright ; translation and all other rights reserved
by the Author
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Introductory Note
THE rapid progress of the idea of birth-
regulation is one of the outstanding social
phenomena of the time. But it cannot
astonish the thoughtful, for the idea appeals
almost irresistibly to the commonsense and the
conscience of civilised beings, and nothing save
superstition and ignorance can impair or impede
its triumph. Further, everybody knows that the
vast majority of its instructed opponents practise
in their private lives what they condemn for
others. That birth-regulation has disadvantages
is arguable. Its disadvantages, however, are not
those usually emphasised by its opponents. For
example, no unprejudiced brain will contend that
that which is so manifestly beneficent to the
individual can be bad for the race. Nor have
children hitherto been such a source of sorrow
and disappointment to parents that the parental
instinct is likely to be destroyed through the
temptations of any device whatever. No ! The
disadvantages of birth- regulation are mainly tran-
sient ; they spring from an imperfect acquaintance
with the methods of it ; and they will pass.
Millions and tens of millions of potential parents
need advice about birth-regulation. They cry
out for sound advice, and they do not get it.
They suffer, sometimes horribly, for want of
sound advice. This book is a practical manual
of birth-regulation written by an unchallenged
authority for the intimate use of potential parents.
Arnold Bennett.
Vll.
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Author's Note
SO many people have written to me after
reading my book ** Married Love," asking
for more detail abbut the end of my chapter
on "Children," that it became impossible to
answer each one personally. As not only these
individual inquirers, but the world at large, and
even the medical profession, lack a rational,
scientific, and critical consideration of the details
concerning birth control methods now used by
millions of people, this little book seemed
urgently needed. I sincerely trust that it will
help materially to improve our race and to check
the spread of nervous and other injuries so preva-
lent as a result of ignorant attempts to obtain
that wise and health-giving control of parenthood
which all who think must crave.
I should like to take this opportunity of urging
young couples who truly love to have all the
children to whom they can give health and
beauty, even if by so doing they sacrifice their
personal luxuries.
Marie Carmichabl Stopes.
October, 1918.
vni,
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Chapter I.
" I think, dearest Uncle, you cannot really wish me to be the
• Mamma (Tune nofnbreuse famillei for I think you will see the
great inconvenience a large family would be to us all, and particu-
larly to the country, independent of the hardship and inconvenience
to myself. Men never think, at least seldom think, what a hard
task it is for us women to go through this very often^^ — Queen
Victoria in a letter to the King of the Belgians, January 15,
1841.
AF AM I LY of healthy happy children should
be the joy of every pair of married lovers. I f,
however, the course of *' nature " is allowed
to run unguided babies come in general too quickly
for the parents* resources, and the parents as well
as the children consequently suffer. Wise parents
therefore guide nature, and control the birth of the
desired children so as to space them in the way
best adjusted to what health, wealth, and happi-
ness they have to give. The object of this book
is to tell prospective parents how best to do this,
and to hand on to them what little help science
can give humanity on this vital subject.
This is not an attempt to present complete
arguments to show the racial and national neces-
sity for Birth Control : that has been done by
others.
Recently valuable expositions of the supreme
importance to humanity of a wise use of birth
control have been made from many different
points of view and by various distinguished people.
Doubtless much more remains to be said, for there
are many who are still ignorant and consequently
Prejudiced against the greatest of the steps
umanity can take next in its evolution ; but this
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2 Wise Parenthood
is not the place to deal with the wide aspect of
the subject.
That almost every intelligent and thoughtful
married pair is practising at the present moment
some method or other of birth control is beyond
dispute.
The question before us, therefore, is not whether
or no birth control should be allowed. 1 1 is in daily
use by the great majority of the more intelligent
married people.
General dissatisfaction with most of the methods
used is prevalent ; and it is not being alleviated,
because there is also a widespread ignorance of
satisfactory methods even on the part of medical
practitioners. Numbers of people who are prac-
tising and have been practising birth control by
various means for years are in urgent need of a
better method than any known to them. The
following pages are written for them.
• ••.•••
If this book gets into the hands of some who
have not given the subject of birth control
adequate thought they should read the books
mentioned on the fly-leaf at the end of this volume.
This short list is only representative of a few of
the more important aspects of the subject ; but if
a serious student is not yet convinced by them
and will follow up and read all the other works
referred to in them he will then at any rate have
a fair idea of the essentials of the subject and can
form t^is own opinions.
What we are here concerned with is the fact
that birth control methods of all sorts are now so
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Wise Parenthood 3
widely used that it is high time serious attention
should be devoted to the subject. People should
not be employing anything less satisfactory than
the best now obtainable ; but, unless they are
given the best, they will assuredly use some less
desirable means.
I will give a quotation from one of our most
ardent social reformers. The Rev. J, Marchant,
Secretary of the Birth Rate Commission and
Secretary of the National Council of Public
Morals, in his recent book, ** Birth Rate and
Empire," says as follows (pp. 144.146) :
If, then, the volitional control of births within the married
state has become a normal proceeding, if it is fast losing its ap-
parent indelicacy, if it is spoken about without raising vicious
passions, if it is becoming the "correct thing" to do ... we
must give up the futile attempt to keep young people in the dark
and the assumption that they are ignorant of notorious facts.
We cannot, if we would, stop the spread of sexual knowledge ;
and, if we could do so, we should only make matters infinitely
worse. This is the second decade of the twentieth century, hot
the early Victorian period. . . . It is, then, no longer a
question of knowing or not knowing, ^ye have to disabuse our
middle-aged minds of that fond delusion. Our young people
know more than we did when we began our married lives, and
sometimes as much as we know ourselves, even now. So that we
need not continue to shake our few remaining hairs in simulating
feelings of surprise and horror. It might have been better for us
if we had been more enlightened. And if our discussion of this
problem is to be of any real use, we must at the outset reconcile
ourselves to the facts that the birth-rate is voluntarily controlled,
that brides and bridegrooms know how it is done, and many will
certainly do it. Certain persons who instruct us in these matters
may hold up their pious hands and whiten their frightened faces
as they cry out in the public squares against "this vice,*' but
they only make themselves ridiculous. Their influence in stem-
ming the tide is nearly ml,
Mr. Marchant says ** Brides and Bridegrooms
know how it is done." That is true. They know
some, perhaps several, ways of securing voluntary
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4 Wise Parenthood
instead of involuntary parenthood, but very few
have precise and satisfactory knowledge or under-
stand the reasons against many of the methods
which are recommended to them either by medical
men or by friends who, as ignorant as they them-
selves, have been in the habit of using methods
described as "harmless," simply because they do
no gross and obvious injury.
Many things are reckoned " harmless " which
are nevertheless far from satisfactory. Let me
take an illustration from another aspect of our
lives. Every medical man would consider doses
of a half teaspoonful of ammoniated quinine as
not only harmless but beneficial to a patient
suffering from influenza. Nevertheless, some
even in normal health find that a few such doses
upset the digestion for several weeks. It is true
that in an influenza epidemic it is more important
to order quinine than to think about people's
digestions, and in this sense quinine is not only
"harmless" but beneficial. There are many
parallels to this in the use of various kinds of
preventives which are described as "harmless."
It is amazing that medical and physiological
science should have so neglected research on this
most vital subject, and that a more perfect pro-
cedure should not yet have been devised : it is
perhaps more amazing that the reactions and
results of the methods now widely used should
not have been thoroughly studied and understood.
The method which I have to suggest is not yet
the ideal, but it is much simpler, more healthful
and less disillusioning than those most in vogue.
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Wise Parenthood 5
After giving the details necessary for the com-
prehension and employment of this one method
which I can sincerely recommend, I shall mention
one or two other of those in general use, with
reasons why I think them inadvisable save in
very special circumstances. The large number
of other and still less satisfactory means employed
will not be touched upon at all, as this is not a
dissertation on birth control methods in general,
but an attempt to be helpful by presenting, if not
the ideal, at any rate the good in place of the
less good or actually bad.
A few fortunate people who really understand
their own physiology, or by happy instinct have
chanced upon the right use of their bodies and
have been in the habit of practising satisfactory
methods, may say or think that such simple and
direct instruction as follows is not needed. To
them the answer is that the personally fortunate
are ever the most callous and unaware of the needs
of others. I have overwhelming evidence and
experience that ignorance is rife even in the very
places where knowledge might be expected to hold
sway. For some time past, scarcely a day has gone
by without my receiving letter after letter from
people who have long been married, from people
who have consulted physicians, from people who
have tried many experiments, and who are yet
ignorant of any really satisfactory means of achiev-
ing what they have been perforce achieving in
unsatisfactory ways. I once asked a medical
woman who had had a practice for fifteen years
what method she would advise : she knew of no
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6 Wise Parenthood
method whatever. A wdl-known doctor in
London, who for twenty years had had a general
and important family practice, asked me if I could
tell him of any method other than the sheath, which
was the only one he knew, as his patients were in-
quiring and he did not know what to tell them.
Many married couples, who are even told by the
doctor that for the wife to have another child would
be fatal, are at the same time not told any rational
method of prevention. With variations depending
on the temperament of the writer, I get appeals
one after the other saying : *'We have asked our
doctor, but he tells us nothing which is of any use.
We have therefore to go on using this, that, or the
other method, which we feel to be unsatisfactory,
because we do not know what else to do."
Churchmen recommend (though I wonder if
they practise) ** absolute continence." Where the
mated pair are young, normal, and in love, such
advice is not only impracticable, it is detrimental.
A rigid and enforced abstinence can be as destruc-
tive of health as incontinence.
Destructive of the health of both mother and
child are the frantic efforts of women ** caught "
prematurely after a birth, or too frequently in their
lives, by undesired motherhood. The desolating
effects of attempted abortion can only be exter-
minated by a sound knowledge of the control of
conception.
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Chapter II.
BEFORE entering into the exact structural
and medical details of the material method
advisable for those who wish to control the
birth of their children, I should like to say a few
words on the general subject in its relation to the
normal life of the married pair.
I sincerely hope that those who propose to
read this little book will first read my ** Married
Love/' because the whole complex experience of
married life is so interwoven with the sex act and
consequent children that it is almost impossible
to isolate the one thing, nan^ely, the controlling
of births, and discuss that by itself without dis-
torting its relation to the whole of life and appear-
ing to lay stress on the minor details rather than
on the greater themes. My object is not to
make sex experience danger-free indulgence, but
in the interests both of the pair and of society to
spread what little light science has already thrown
upon the subject, so that each pair may not only
themselves be healthy and happy, but may bring
forth children for the Empire who have the best
chance which that pair can give them of health
and beauty and happiness. From a variety of
causes our race is weakened by an appallingly
high percentage of unfit weaklings and diseased
individuals. The work of the Empire is hindered
and its existence jeopardised if our people are so
hampered. The majestic destiny of the human
race can only be fulfilled when all are strong,
beautiful and intelligent. Hence only children
with the chance of attaining such a maturity
should be conceived. This can only be when
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8 Wise Parenthood
the whole relation of each married pair is rightly
adjusted, and therefore it is my earnest request
that those who have not yet read "Married
Love '' will lay this book aside until they have
done so.
• •• •••••
Certain details concerning the structure of our
bodies must be particularly considered in connec-
tion with the control of conception. It is possible
to imagine very highly-evolved creatures who
would only unite when they definitely desired a
child. There are human beings to-day who
advocate that course and who either practise it
or endeavour to practise it, but as a race we are
not yet sufficiently evolved for such procedure ;
and whether these people realise it or not, with
few exceptions, they wrong their partner, they
wrong themselves, and they wrong the community
in which they live, by ignoring other facts and
laying too heavy a burden on their own shoulders.
One of the least serious, but most annoying,
results to the community is a harshness of judg-
ment, an irritableness and a tendency to quarrel
and bicker, which such people frequently develop.
A wise mpderation should be exercised.
Our bodies bear the impress of many past
material phases of our evolution ; and because in
the past myriads of young were needed by any
race that should evolve we still produce a far
larger number of germs awaiting fertilisation than
can ever be fructified and imbued with individual
life. Yet each of those germs, unaware of its own
futility if it reaches fertilisation at an unpro-
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Wise Parenthood 9
pitious moment, is just as insistent in its develop-
ment as the rarer favoured one which follows out
the natural course of its career and gives rise to
an individual. In each sex act myriads of sperm
cells (each of which had it had the female egg
cell to fuse with might have produced a living
child) are daily destroyed, because in general the
female has but one egg cell at a time ready for
fertilisation. Control of conception consists in
shutting away all the millions of sperm from the
one egg instead of allowing one of those millions
to develop while all the rest of the myriads perish.
When should such steps be taken ?
(a) It is advisable not to have a child in the
very early days of marriage, because in the first
few months at any rate the woman's system
should be adjusting itself to new conditions,
benefiting from the change in her life, and gain-
ing pose and strength for the burden which she
will have to bear. Nevertheless, some people
feel that a child conceived in the first glow of
rapturous union may be more precious than one
born later. There is a certain cynicism about
this last view, however, which I deplore, because
a rightly mated and wisely temperate pair do not
lose the rapture of their early love, but retain it
with an added depth.
(d) After the birth of a child it is essential that
there should be no hurried beginning of a second.
Ai least 2l year should be given to the mother to
regain her strength and to devote herself to the
baby before a second child is conceived, preferably
more than one year, and some distinguished
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^o Wise Parenthood
gynaecologists even advocate as much as three or
more years between births of successive children.
(c) In all cases of inherited disease, such as
insanity and epilepsy, also where one or both of
the partners are drunkards.
(^ In all cases where either of the pair is
suffering from venereal disease. (It should be
recognised that all sex unions at such a time are
to be most strongly deprecated.)
(e) In all cases where for a variety of reasons
all the older children are puny and utterly
unsatisfactory.
(/) In all cases where another child coming will
rob those already born of the necessary food or
will force the mother to half-starve herself to
bear or rear it.
(g') In all cases whfere the mother has already
had six children, unless she has exceptional
vitality and the ardent wish to bear more.
Dr. Ploetz found that nearly 60 per cent, of
babies born to women who had as many as twelve
children always died. When the chances of death
of an infant are 60 per cent, there must surely be
some very special personal reason for a woman
to bear such a problematical life. Country women
of robust frame and with plenty of wholesome
food and fresh air, may bear a dozen or more
splendid children, but poor mothers in the
crowded cities can seldom, without disaster, bring
forth more than half that number.
Now it must not be imagined that by control-
ling births the pair are necessarily reducing the
number of children they bring to maturity. As
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Wise Parenthood ^^
a matter of fact, by taking care to bring forth
children only when they are fit to do so, parents
immensely increase the chances of those children
reaching maturity and living healthy and happy
lives. It is very important to notice that Holland,
the country in Europe, indeed in the world, most
advanced in relation to birth control, where almost
everyone takes care that the children shall be well
and voluntarily conceived, has greatly increased
its survival-rate. 1 1 has the lowest infant mortality
in Europe, and it has saved itself the cost and
wastage of innumerable babies' coffins, while
actually accelerating its rate of increase of popu-
lation. America, on the other hand, where the
outrageous " Comstock " laws confuse wise scien-
tific control with illegal abortion of lives already
begun and labels them both as obscene, has, by
thus preventing people from obtaining decent
hygienic knowledge, fostered criminal and illicit
operations. Women, driven to despair, to mad-
ness, by the incessant horror of pregnancies they
dread, will by hook or by crook, from the street
corner or the gutter, find out how to strangle the
life which should never have begun.
In my book, ** Married Love," in the chapter
on " Children," I said, concerning the control of
conception :
This may be done either by shutting the sperir.s away from the
opening of the womb or by securing the death of a// (instead of the
death of all but one) of the two to six hundred million sperms
which enter the womb. Even when a child is allowed to grow in
its mother, all these hundreds of millions of sperms are inevitably
and naturally destroyed every time the man has an emission, and
to add one more to these millions sacrificed by Nature is surely no
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12 Wise Parenthood
crime. To kill quickly the ejaculated sperms which would other-
wise die and decompose naturally, is a simple matter. Their
minute and uncovered bodies are plasmolised in weak acid, such
as vinegar and water, or by a solution of quinine or by many other
substances.
To those who protest that we have no right to interfere with the
course of Nature, one must point out that the whole of civilisation,
everything which separates men from animals, is an interference
with what such people commonly call Nature.
Nothing in the cosmos could be against Nature, for it all forms
part of the great processes of the universe.
Actions differ, however, in their relative positions in the scale
of things. Only those actions are worthy which lead the race
always to a higher and fuller completion and the perfecting of
its powers, which steer the race into the main current of that
stream of life and vitality which courses through us and impels
us forward.
It is a sacred duty of all who dare to hand on the awe-inspiring
gift of life, to hand it on in a vessel as fit and perfect as they can
fashion, so that the body may be the strongest and most beautiful
instrument possible in the service of the soul they summon to play
its part in the mystery of material being.
The exact method I recommend, which is a
combination of the shutting away of the sperms
from the womb and of securing their immediate
death instead of letting them decompose naturally,
is described in the next chapter.
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Chapter III.
Method Recommended
TO be entirely satisfactory a method should
combine at least three essentials — safety,
entire harmlessness, and the minimum dis-
turbance of spontaneity in the sex act (that is to
say, it should be as little inaesthetic as is possible).
Some people, generally those who have been
brought up in the hazy ignorance of either an
idealistic or a shame-faced attitude towards sex,
refuse to use any preventive method. Not in-
frequently a woman who has had several children
and acquired a fear of pregnancy so refuses, and
cuts off her husband from all normal intercourse.
Such people should try to realize that because
there may be a few inartistic moments in a course
of procedure, that cannot rationally be held to
prohibit the procedure. It would be as reasonable
to decide that as some of the processes of cooking
and the after-affects of digestion are inartistic,
solid food should not be taken. In this physical
world we are to a considerable extent dependent
on the physical facts of our bodies, which we can-
not over-ride without making grievous trouble
either for ourselves or those around us.
No method is absolutely safe, but if two methods
each very nearly reliable, are combined, then some-
thing approaching absolute safety is achieved. It
must be remembered, however, that the most
perfect procedure devisable, cannot be safe in the
hands of one who is careless. The one to whom
the consequences of carelessness are most serious
is, of course, the woman ; she, therefore, is the one
who should exercise the precaution. Consequently
13
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14 Wise Parenthood
she must have knowledge sufficient to be sure that
she is taking the right steps. A large number of
women are not acquainted with the physical struc-
ture of the human body ; it is, therefore, necessary
to describe a few essential features which all
women must understand in order to take the best
precautions.
A married woman has no difficulty in distinguish-
ing the entrance of the vagina. The vagina itself
is not a sex organ, but is the canal leading to the
important internal organ — the womb. The ovaries,
the actual source of the egg cells, are entirely internal
and do not concern us here. The womb, however,
though it is internal, can readily be felt near the end
of the vaginal canal {v in diagram) if the woman
feels for it with her longest finger (which, of course,
should be very clean,
with the nails also
clean before it is in-
serted gently). The
distance from the
opening of the vajginal
orifice (o), which is the
' external opening, to
•5 • the end of the vaginal
canal where the womb
.can be just felt by most
women, is generally
about the length of the
woman's own finger.
The womb (w) lies in-
ternally l}ut at the end of the canal and a little
to one side, its neck projects like an inverted dome
of soft firm tissue {n w) ; in the centre of this is the
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Wise Parenthood ^5-
very small actual opening (s) through which the
sperm will pass if it is to fertilise an egg cell. This
opening, however, is very small, and would not be
felt under normal circumstances by most women.
The woman should know that it is there and that,
therefore, if she wishes to prevent the sperm reach-
ing the ovum this small entrance is the critical
gateway through which the sperm must not pass.
In the vagina itself, the sperms are merely waiting
in the ante-room. The vagina, however, is of great
importance to the man in the sex act, for it is into
the vagina that his organ is fitted, and there it
receives the sensations necessary for the comple-
tion of the normal act, the contact of the soft tissues
of the parts being an important element in the right
performance of the vital function. The ideal pre-
ventive method, therefore, does not interpose any-
thing between the tissues of the vaginal canal and
the male organ, but it should close the minute
entrance of the womb and shut away the sperm
from entering that critical part.
The best appliance at present available for doing
this is a small rubber cap, made on a firm rubber
ring, which is accurately fixed round the dome-like
end of the womb, and, adhering by suction, remains
Securely in place, whatever movement the woman
may make. (In the diagram, c shows the rubber
cap in position.) These small rubber caps are quite
simple, strong, easily fitted, and should be procur-
able from any first-class chemist.^ The important
* This round rubber cap is also called the small check pessary, or
small occlusive pessary. A useful variety is made with a spiral
spring. I am not here speaking of the larger mensinga or matrisalus
pessaries.
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1 6 Wise Parenthood
point about adjusting them is that they should be
of the right size. The average woman is fitted by
a small or a medium size, but the woman who has
had several children generally wants them larger.
Before insertion the rubber cap should be moistened
with very soapy water, so as to allow it to slip in
easily. Quinine ointment is sometimes preferred
for this purpose, and if both the inside and outside
of the cap be well covered with it, it may be un-
necessary to insert a quinine pessary later (see page
1 7) if the cap is very well fitted. It should be fitted
at any convenient time, preferably when dressing
in the evening and some hours before going to bed.
The great advantage of this cap is that once it is in
and firmly and properly fitted it can be entirely
forgotten, and neither the man nor the woman can
detect its presence. It should be put in at least
some hours before bedtime, and left in undisturbed
until at least the following day ; but I very much
advise it being left in two or three days after any
individual act of union. The reason for this will
be mentioned below. Some women put it in when
the monthly period has entirely ceased, and leave
it in for three weeks. I am not sure that to leave
the cap in for so long is quite advisable, but it may
remain undisturbed for a few days or a week quite
safely under normal circumstances.
Now this method alone, if the cap really fits and
if it is left in for some days so that the sperm are
naturally got rid of without having a chance to
enter, should be completely safe in itself. There is,
however, always the possibility of a slight displace-
ment or of a particularly active sperm remaining
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Wise Parenthood \^
after the cap has been taken out and then using
the opportunity to swim into the entrance of the
womb. To render this impossible, or at any rate
unlikely in the extreme, it is as well to plasmolize
the sperms when they first come in ; and in order
to do this the best method is to have some plas-
molizing substance in the vagina at the time when
the sperms are deposited. The reason why it is
better to do this rather than to wait and deal with
the sperms afterwards is given in the paragraph
on douching (see page 26).
Several substances may be used for the purpose
of plasmolizing the sperms. One which is the
easiest, because it is specially prepared and can
be purchased readily, is the soluble quinine pes-
sary. As this is in a form which enables the
woman to slip it in undetected, the crisis is not
aesthetically interfered with. I n a few words, there-
fore, the readiest method of safe prevention is to
combine the previously fitted rubber cap, which
remains for some time in place, with the soluble
quinine pessary slipped in a few minutes before the
act. With these precautions, nothing further need
be done. There is no getting up to douche or to
take other precautions in the middle of the night.
I do not even advise the removal of the cap or
any steps being taken the following morning. The
usual processes of Nature will dispose of the now
impotent sperms. Those who are very anxious,
however, who may feel this calm inactivity in-
sufficient, may desire to douche the next morning
and take out the cap. If they wish to do so, there
is no harm in using one of the douches mentioned
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1 8 Wise Parenthood
on page 29, so long as douching is not too frequently
indulged in and does not become a regular habit.
About the action of quinine on the vagina I am
still uncertain. For the average woman it is quite
harmless ; but, on the other hand, I am far from
persuaded that it may not be partly absorbed by
the walls of the vaginal canal and thus penetrate
the system in such a way as to make peculiarly
sensitive women either somewhat sleepless or to
interfere slightly with the digestion, or to initiate
local tenderness. It has been proved by scientific
experiment that some substances (iodine, for in-
stance) do penetrate through the walls of the
vagina and get into the circulatory system with
remarkable rapidity. Whether or not the same
applies to quinine has never been tested, so far as
I am aware. It is likely, however, that it may do
so. If, therefore, after using the quinine the
woman finds herself in any way doubtful of its
action, I should recommend her to try one of the
following methods : —
(a) Instead of soluble quinine, to insert a small
sponge (a fine- textured sponge about one and a
half inches in diameter), which has been moistened
and into which she has thoroughly rubbed soap
powder, filling the pores of the sponge with
powdered soap. This, if pushed up to the end
of the vagina, should in itself be sufficient to
render the sperm inactive. The sponge, however,
should be taken out next morning ; and, as this
may displace the rubber cap, a douche may have
to be used. It is therefore not quite so satisfac-
tory a method as the soluble pessary which
requires no further attention.
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Wise Parenthood ^9
(6) A pad of cotton wool, thoroughly smeared
with vaseline, which has been mixed with pow-
dered borax, may be inserted into the end of the
vagina. This may be used by those who find
soap in any way unpleasant, or irritating, as it
would tend to be more soothing.
(c) A strip of boracic lint may be inserted and
packed round the cap after its insertion and not
very long before union takes place. This is per-
haps the cleanest and easiest of these alternatives.
None of these methods, however, seem to me
so easy nor quite so satisfactory as the soluble
quinine pessary. The great drawback to the
soluble quinine pessary, however, is that it is itself
made of cocoa butter, and that the cocoa butter has
an odour some people object to (this can be got
over by purchasing the more expensive, scented
kind), and that the melted cocoa butter tends to
spread on to linen.
Several varieties of soluble pessaries are made
with other substances on the Continent, but they
are not so easily obtained in this country. In France
the peasant women make up such things for them-
selves, and a woman who has time and skill could
do this, using gelatine instead of cocoa butter.
The greatest care should be exercised in getting
a rubber cap exactly to fit. In order to put it in,
the woman should be in a stooping position, and
she should press the rim of the cap together so as
to slip it into the opening. When the cap reaches
the end of the vaginal canal it will naturally expand
and then tends to find its place itself {c in diagram).
It wants pressing firmly round the protuberance of
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20 Wise Parenthood
the womb, however, and if it is too small it may
miss covering the critical opening. It should be
the largest size which fits with comfort. One too
large, of course, will leave a gap and be more dis-
astrous than one too small. A woman who is
afraid of her own body or ignorant of her own
physiology should get a practitioner to fit her with
a rubber cap; but for women of averag'e intelligence
this is not necessary. (It is shown in place in the
diagram at c.) On the other hand, as the relative
sizes of all the parts of our bodies vary very much,
a woman may have a vaginal canal longer than her
own centre finger, and would then have to be fitted
by a medical practitioner, a nurse, or some com-
petent person. In the first instance, she should
purchase more than one size to find out exactly
what suits her. On each occasion it should be
pressed firmly, after some active movement, to see
that it does not slip. When the cap is once firmly
on, both the man and the woman can be at ease
about it, as it will remain in for days without dis-
lodgment. It should perhaps be mentioned that
it is quite impossible for the cap to enter further or
get into the body cavity and "lose itself among
the organs, as some ignorant people fear.
In order to get it out, all that is necessary is to
bend a finger under its rim and jerk it off. The
cap can then be brought out, washed and left to dry
until it is next wanted. Rubber tends to rot ; so,
^after some months' use, it should be carefully
examined to see that it is not torn or become liable
to be readily perforated. If for a long time it is out
of use it will be found to keep better in water than
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Wise Parenthood 21
in the air, as rubber is preserved for a longer period
if kept under water than if exposed. If the woman
can afford it, I should recommend a new one every
six months or so, though with great care they will
last a couple of years.
Various forms of rubber caps are on the market,
shaped in various ways, but the circular, strong
ring, with the dome-shaped soft centre, is the kind
I recommend and which to the average woman is
by far the most satisfactory.
This procedure on the part of the woman, though
it may sound elaborate and a little sordid when
described in full detail, is, nevertheless, after the
first usage, so simple and so unobtrusive, that it
can be entirely forgotten during the marriage rite
itself. It, therefore, alone among mechanical pre-
ventive methods, does not tend to destroy the sense
of spontaneous and uninterrupted feeling, which is
so vital an element in the perfected union, and at
the same time allows all the benefit to be derived
from it. Doubdess when once the intelligent
inquiry and scientific research commensurate with
the importance of the subject are devoted to it,
better preventive methods] may be devised ; but,
in the meantime this combination of methods is far
the best course which I can recommend, and,
indeed, the only one which I can sincerely
recommend.
There are, however, great varieties of individual
needs 6n the part of various people, and as a good
many other methods are in common use a few
words about them are necessary.
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Chapter IV.
Comments on a Few of the Important
Methods in Use
THE shutting away of the sperm from the
womb can be as completely achieved by
covering the male organ as it can by cover-
ing the mouth of the womb by the rubber cap, as
has just been described. This method is perhaps
the best known of all in current use, and sheaths
under various names, formed either from rubber,
skin, or treated silk, are sold in a variety of qualities
and designs. They are alike, however, in the
essential, namely, that they enclose the male organ,
completely preventing the sperm from escaping^
into the vagina.
These are certainly among the most ** harmless "
of the methods recommended by many people.
In my opinion, however, there are objections to
them which are sufficiently serious to make the
use of a sheath, except under special conditions,
inadvisable.
A serious objection is that the sheath prevents
the seminal fluid reaching the woman, and, though
very little research has been undertaken on this
subject, there is evidence that there is a physio-
logical advantage to the woman in the partial
absorption of the man's secretions, which must
take place through the permeable wall of the
vaginal canal, quite apart from the separate and
distinct act of fertilisation. If, as physiology has
proved is the case, the internal absorption of
secretions from the sex organs plays so large a
part in determining the health and character of
remote parts of the body, it is extremely likely
that the highly-stimulating secretion of mans
22
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Wise Parenthood 23
semen can and does penetrate and affect the
womans whole organism. Actual experiment
has shown that iodine placed in the vagina in
solution is so quickly absorbed that in an hour it
has penetrated the system and is even being
excreted. It still remains, however, for scientific
experiments to be devised which will enable us to
study the question of the absorption of substances
from the seminal fluid.
There is one circumstance in which sheaths are
advisable, and that is when either partner suffers
from illness or disease. If the man is out of
health it cannot be good for the woman to absorb
the secretions. If the man is actively and con-
tagiously diseased the use of a sheath very
materially reduces the chances of carrying local
infection. While in my opinion it is monstrous
that anyone suffering from sex disease should have
connection with his wife, it is nevertheless a fact
that many men do, and claim that they need it.
If either of the two is diseased the use of a sheath
is imperative. Advice is often given about wash-
ing and disinfecting the sheath so that it can be
used again. But this is not really a wise pro-
cedure, for few private people are likely to be
sufficiently careful to make such disinfection com-
plete. Preferably the sheath should be destroyed
and a fresh one used each time.
To return to those in normal health, another
objection to the use of the sheath is that it reduces
the closeness of contact and thus destroys the
sense of complete union which is not only pleasur-
able, but is definitely soothing to the nerves and
physiologically and spiritually advantageous in
every way.
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24 Wise Parenthood
A minor, but nevertheless important, objection
is an aesthetic one — the putting on of a sheath,
the feel of its texture, and the consciousness that
it is there, destroy the spontaneous beauty of what
should be the natural developmentof mutual feeling.
If, however, it is absolutely essential that no risk
should be run of the wife becoming pregnant (if,
for instance, it would kill her to have another
child), then perhaps the sheath may be used in
addition to the method taken by the wife, because
no method gives absolute security by itself, though
it may give 9,999 chances of security to one of
danger.
But for normal healthy people I do not recom-
mend the sheath.
The method perhaps most widely in use of all,
and which appeals to many people because it
requires no special appliance or chemicals, is with-
drawaly or coitus interruptus. Many who are in-
clined, without sufficient knowledge, to condemn
other methods, consider that this must be entirely
harmless, because nothing is involved which they
consider ** unnatural." Nevertheless, this method
has without doubt done an incredible amount of
harm, not directly, but through its reactions on
the nervous systems of both man and woman.
Some men are strong enough to feel no evil effects
even from its constant practice ; but many men
who do not trace it directly to this are, neverthe-
less, sufferers through their nerves, and conse-
sequently through their digestions and power of
sleep (ills which a competent observer can trace
to this procedure); and other men are actually
conscious of its ill-effects.
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The great majority of women whose husbands
practise this method suffer very fundamentally as
a result of the reiterated stirring-up of local
nervous excitement which is deprived of its
natural physiological resolution. Of the far-
reaching effects on the woman s entire organism,
of the lack of proper orgasm, which is generally
a result of this method, this is not the place to
speak, and the reader is referred to ^* Married
Love '* where various aspects of the subject are
more fully considered.
The following specific objections, however,
should be mentioned. The local support and
nerve-soothing contact which are supplied mutually
to both when the act is completed normally are
destroyed. The man, instead of allowing himself
theJ normal ease and relaxation of attention which
should be the concomitant of the act, has to keep
a strain upon his attention in order to withdraw at
exactly the right second ; he is thus straining not
only his local nervous system, but his central
nervous system.
The woman, even when she has the good fortune
to have a husband with exceptional powers of
control, is always in a state of anxiety in case the
withdrawal should not be rightly timed, or that
some of the fluid should accidentally touch her.
In either case pregnancy is possible ; so that Aer
central system, as well as her local nervous system,
is also strained. The act, therefore, cannot have
the soothing and healing power which it normally
should have, and is, moreover, resolved into its
lowest terms — merely physical "relief" for the
man.
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26 Wise Parenthood
In addition to this, if there is the slightest delay
in withdrawal or any carelessness, the woman has
immediately to arise from the warm bed and
douche, in the anxious hope that she may be in
time. (Concerning douching see what I have to
say below.)
Except for cases of emergency or in circum-
stances involvingaccidental failure of other means,
or by exceptional people who have become speci-
ally adapted to this malpractice, withdrawal should
never be used. Most unfortunately, by a certain
** virtuous " type of person this method is described
as ** self-restraint " and so has been surrounded
with an aura of approval, and thus the incalcul-
able harm it does is increased.
Various instruments, some of metal, have been
made and from time to time recommended for the
internal use of women. They should in any cir-
cumstance only be used after the fullest and most
competent medical examination and must be fitted
by a doctor. For some unfortunate women who
have been damaged by child-birth, and whose
organs are no longer normally placed, they may
be necessary. For normal women they are entirely
to be condemned.
The method most widely practised by women,
and which is recommended as not only ** harmless "
but by many as positively beneficial, is douching.
About this method there is very much to say.
In the first place, in the nature of things the
douching must come after the act of* union. As
sometimes the sperm may be ejected actually
into the womb itself, douching after the event
may be quite futile. But even where this has not
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Wise Parenthood 27
happened, and the sperms are still in the vaginal
canal, it resolves itself into a race between the
plasmolising fluid and the sperms ; and the sperms,
having already got something of a start, may win
the race, and penetrate the womb. In that event
douching may be entirely too late. There is, there-
fore, no certainty whatever in the method of
douching, though as a result of the shock and
general discomfort entailed it may very often
inhibit conception.
The objections to it, even if it were, what it is
not, a safe method, are twofold : aesthetic and physio-
logical. The aesthetic objection is by no means to,
be despised, for the effect both on man and wife of
having immediately to rise from a warm embrace
and come down to the crudest material facts of
douches and chemicals at the mqment when the
whole relation should be one of tenderest mutual
feeling and repose, is desolatingly disillusioning to
a romantic man or woman. In not a few instances
it has broken up sex relations entirely by destroying
the man's sense of romance, so that he is no longer
capable of physically loving his wife. While there
are wives who refuse all sex relations to their
husbands on the ground that the douching involved
is intolerable.
The man, however, is often saved the disadvan-
tages by the natural sleep which follows his com-
pleted act. It is the woman who chiefly suffers by
this method. Physical reactions on the woman are
of two principal kinds : the first, subtler, and
generally overlooked, is that her inclination to
sleep (if she has been fortunate enough to have had
the completed act) is thwarted if not entirely
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28 Wise Parenthood
destroyed. The tendency of this is to make her
nervous, and, if she is highly strung, to induce
chronic sleeplessness. On the other hand, she
also suffers from the local chill of getting up out of a
warm bed and moving about the room, unless she is
one of the very few fortunate ones who can afford a
fire in a bedroom and a maid to prepare the warm
douche. Most women have to do these things
themselves, and even douching with warm water
does not eliminate the general chill.
There is, however, another and more serious ob-
jection against the douching which is so widely
advocated. 1 1 washes out and destroys the bacterial
inhabitants of the vaginal canal. People insuffici-
ently acquainted with science have jumped to the
conclusion that this is a good thing, because some
bacteria are known to them to be enemies of man-
kind. They think it therefore an act of cleanliness
to wash out the vaginal canal, and they even go so
far as to compare it with brushing the teeth and
rinsing the mouth.
Some people, observing the "dirty*' little nodules
on the root of the pea plant, and being told that they
contain bacteria, would be impelled to pinch them
off — thereby depriving the plant of its most valu-
able allies — the bacteria which ** fix " the nitrogen
from the air and which consequently place the pea
plant in a more advantageous position than most of
the members of the vegetable kingdom. It is true
that doctors have not yet thoroughly examined or
discovered exactly what part the bacteria in the
vagina play in the internal economy of the woman,
but sufficient evidence has accumulated to show the
folly of destroying them and at the same time
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Wise Parenthood 29
affecting the lining of the vaginal canal. For some
years I have been against douching, save in emer-
gencies. Recently a definite denunciation of
douching was published in the British Medical
Journal^ of April 20, 1 9 1 8, by Dr. Fothergill. This
article is, of course, by no means final, any more
than are my own private views on the matter, but
it deserves the careful attention of the many people
who indulge in or recommend the frequent use of
the douche of all kinds.
Nevertheless, there are occasions when douching
may be necessary, and when it is only used infre-
quently it can do no harm if the proper solutions
are employed.
Regarding the solutions which should be em-
ployed when a douche seems advisable, a large
number of substances, all of which are soluble
or mixable with water, have been recommended
by various people. It is to be remembered that
at present I am recommending only those suitable
for normal healthy people. Specific diseases, of
course, require specific treatment.
Many of the so-called ** harmless" substances
used for the douche are very far from being
entirely harmless. Such a chemical as corrosive
sublimate, for instance, which is often recom-
mended, ought not to be placed in the hands of
the private individual haphazard, and, moreover,
though but few serious cases are on record
against it, when one realises that the vaginal
walls may absorb part at least of the fluid, its
use is to be entirely deprecated save for specific
diseases.
Lysol, carbolic acid and other such strong
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30 Wise Parenthood
fluids, though "harmless" if diluted sufficiently,
are, nevertheless, destructive rather than healing
in their action, and if by accident are used too
strong, or even if used frequently by a sensitive
subject, are very apt to lead to sores or even
partial destruction of the tissues.
Only the simplest and most wholesome sub-
stances, therefore, are to be recommended for
general use. For the purpose of douching to
plasmolise the sperms, either vinegar and water
or common salt and water could scarcely be
bettered. If vinegar and water are used, it
should be in about equal parts of vinegar and
warm water. Common salt should be made into
a strong solution, and about two tablespoonfuls
of salt to a pint of water. These solutions are
quite sufficient to incapacitate any sperm, and at
the same time they contain no substance in the
slightest degree deleterious or even very foreign
to the system if partly absorbed.
People have for too long coupled normal pre-
vention for quite healthy people with disinfection
of one or other of the pair where disease exists
or is suspected. In this book I am not dealing
with cases of the diseased or the medically unfit
in any way. They may, under doctors orders,
have to use strong, even perhaps dangerous
chemicals. I am now only advising the perfectly
normal and healthy what to use to keep them-
selves normal and healthy, for I think it is time
to disentangle simple control of conception by
healthy people from the covert attempts to stay
the progress of racial diseases.
It will be seen from the above, therefore, that
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Wise Parenthood 3^
on the whole, I strongly deprecate douching as a
regular practice, but should advise every woman
to have a douche available for infrequent use on
occasions, when she should employ simple salt
and water or vinegar and water in making up
the douche.
Many people are under the impression that if
the act of union is confined to certain days, they
are then quite safe, and that conception will not
occur. The dates vary slightly, depending on
the exit of the unfertilised egg cell ; but, on an
average, from the fourth or fifth day after menstru-
ation for about a fortnight a woman is said to be
unable to conceive. This may be true for some
individuals, whose reproductive vitality is not
very acute, but it is extremely unreliable, and
in many instances is quite deceptive. The reason
for this is obvious to those who know the struc-
ture of the parts. Male sperm can live, if it is
vital and healthy to begin with, for eight or ten
days : during any time throughout this period
one deposited days before may emerge from
some crevice in the skin of the vaginal canal in
which it has lain concealed and swim into the
womb and ultimately effect conception, though
it is true that the chance of this taking place is
not so great as the chance of conception following
an active orgasm. Nevertheless, cases are on
record when a sperm has made its adventurous
journey not merely from the vagina into the
womb, but from the outside organs of a virgin
girl.
Some people, therefore, to whom it is not a
serious matter whether a child is born or not, may
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32 Wise Parenthood
find the comparative security of a "safe period *'
sufficient But I am inclined to advise against
its observance, because the **safe period" is
obviously the time when the Woman has less
physiological benefit from the sex act, and also
because I think that so important and funda-
mental a need as the act of married union should not
be thwarted by waiting for dates on the calendar,
when it could be so much better fulfilled at the
normal time of desire if the woman is protected in
the way which I have recommended on page 13.
Another ** method," often advised by well-
meaning people and sometimes by nurses and
even by doctors, is for the woman to feel safe
while she is nursing her child. Much could be
said against this ; in the first instance the security
offered is as unreliable as that of the ** safe
period " ; and in addition it often tempts women,
particularly in the poorer classes, to continue to
nurse a child after the milk has lost its nourishing
quality, to the serious detriment of both mother
and nursling.
Of the many other varieties of methods and
substances recommended and in use, I do not
propose to speak. Those who have read the
present pages with attention will be able to appre-
ciate for themselves arguments against their use.
Nevertheless, the ideal method is not yet dis-
covered, though I am following up a line of
research at present on a method designed greatly
to improve on those now available. Meanwhile,
if anyone knows of any method better than that
now suggested, I sincerely hope that he or she
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Wise Parenthood 33
will publish it or will communicate it to me, c/o
my publisher.
Note. — Both my publisher and I must be excused from
answering any letters about the names of the appliances or sub-
stances mentioned in the text. As described, they can be
obtained from many high-class chemists. Anyone living in a very
small village should write to one of the larger chemists or drug
stores in town, or apply to their local doctor. As a number of
inferior makes are on the market it is important to obtain the best
only : failures due to inferior articles should not be attributed to
the method itself. Note particularly that there should be no
roughness or visible join in the rubber cap where the soft centre
adheres to the rim.
Books Recommended for Reading.
REPORT OF THE NATIONAL BIRTH-RATE COMMIS-
SION, Pp. xiv, 450. Publ. Chapman and Hall, London,
1917.
DRYSDALE, C. V., D.Sc— " The Small Family System." Publ.
Fifield, London, 19 13.
FOTHERGILL, W. E., M.A., B.Sc, M.D. " A Clinical Lecture
on the Bad Habit of Douching." British Medical
Journal^ pp. 445-446, April 20, 1918.
KNIBBS, G. H.— Appendix A, Vol. i, to the Census of the Com-
monwealth of Australia (Applied to the data of Aus-
tralian Census, 191 1). Pp. xvi, 466. Publ. Melbourne,
1917 or 1918. (No date on title-page.)
MARCH ANT, Rev. JAMES.—" Birth Rate and Empire." Pp. xi,
226. Publ. Williams and Norgate, London, 1917.
MORE, ADELYNE.— With an Introduction by Arnold Bennett,
— " Fecundity versus Civilization ; A Contribution to
the Study of Over-population as the Causes of War and
the Chief Obstacle to the Emancipation of Women,
with special reference to Germany. Pp. 1-52. Publ.
Allen and Unwin, London, 19 16.
MILLARD, C. KILLICK, M.D., D.Sc, Medical Officer of
Health for Leicester. — " Population and Birth Control.
Presidential Address delivered before the Leicester
Literary and Philosophical Society." Pp. 1-48. PubL
Thomley, Leicester, 191 7.
STOPES, MARIE C, D.Sc, Ph.D.—" Married Love." Pp. xvii,
116. Publ. A. C. Fifield, London, 1919. Sixth edition
enlarged.
4
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By the same Author,
MARRIED LOVE.
A NEW CONTRIBUTION TO THE SOLUTION OF SEX DIFFICULTIES
SIXTH EDITION. SIX SHILLINGS NET* POSTAGE 3d. REGISTERED 5d.
•* Like all Dr. Stopes's writing, it is clear, thoughtful, penetrating,
and undoubtedly is a scientific contribution towards a subject
which a decade ago would have been taboo. . . . Our advice is
for women to read it and for men to read it, for there is here stated
a real problem which is specifically English." — Eng^/ sh Review,
'* Dr. Marie Stopes has endeavoured to meet the need of healthy
young i)eople of the educated class for information as to the sexual
responsibilities of marriage. Thoi gh not a medical woman,
the author has special qualifications for this task ; with -high
scientific attainments she combines literary skill, sympathetic
insight, idealism, and more than common courage. . . . Not-
withstanding the vast output of books on sex in recent times.
Dr. Stopes has, we think, proved that som'jthing remained to be
said on this subject if the right person could be found to say it
in the right way." — British Medical Journal,
"It is probably the most important contribution to the sex
problem that has ever been made really accessible :o the English
public." — Cambridge Magazine,
** In saying that, unless the art of love is studied, marriage
cannot bear its full fruits, she sees, as the greatest inkers have
always seen, that marriage is a symbol of transcendental signi-
ficance."—ZA^ Hospital.
" This book considers its subject almost entirely in its physio-
logical and medical aspects, though Dr. Stopes has something to
say, too, on the spiritual side of the bearing towards each other
of husband and wife. . • . Much of what she has to say is
calculated to prevent impaired health, misunderstanding, and
unhappiness." — Times Literary Supplement,
" This is an extremely sensible little book ; it deals in th'.. most
intimate way with normal sexual lit-N und by sheer fr'»nkness
remains decent. Of the things which are commonly accepted as
sound physiology we need only say that there are things which
thousands of people would be the happier for knowing, though
they cannot be made part of any public syllabus of education.
. . . This is to say that the book is really needed as a public
adviser." — The Lancet,
LONDON : A. C. FIFIELD, 13. CLIFFORD'S INN, E.C. 4.
John Bale, Sons & Daniblsson, Ltd,. Gt. Titchfield St., London .W.
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